Determining what is important in terms of the quality of an urban green network: a study of urban planning in England and Scotland

There is a lack of a clear understanding as to what is meant by a good-quality green network within urban planning research and practice. The aim of this paper is to examine whether it is possible to arrive at a set of core principles which can be used to identify what a good-quality green network means. Content analysis is used to assess the views of practitioners at workshops and to assess the planning policy indicators being applied in two study areas. By using this method, six network quality principles are derived: proximity, biodiversity, linkage, cooling, flood risk and quantity. The analysis of the indicators, based on the six network quality principles, suggests that the link between planning policies and the delivery of a good-quality green network is unclear in the areas studied.